High-speed twisting machine



Sept. 21, 1954 c. o. BRUESTLE HIGH-SPEED TWISTING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 11, 1951 C. O. BRUESTLE HIGH-SPEED TWISTING MACHINE Sept. 21, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 11, 1951 f1 6:111 07:- C'cui O B ruesile 331 E58 HHOTITL .5,

Sept. 21,-1954 Filed Dec. 11, 1951 C. O. BRUESTLE HIGH-SPEED TWISTING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 JIM/3 11101.- C'cLrL' O B rueslle Sept. 21, 1954 c. o. BRUESTLE HIGH-SPEED TWISTING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Dec. 11, 1951 vi/I/ Patented Sept. 21 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,689,447 HIGH-SPEED TWISTING MACHINE Carl 0. Bruestle, Metuchen, N. J., assignor to Syncro Machine Company, Perth Amboy, N. .L, a corporation of New Jersey Application December 11, 1951, Serial No. 261,120

forming the twisting operation will have in com-,

mon certain characteristics whether they twist two, three or four strands. In the past machines of this character have included a so-called flyer formed of a pair of bowed or arched rods cn'- nected at their ends to trunnions, which in turn ar mounted in suitable supports. The trunnions are made hollow, so that strands may be fed along the longitudinalaxis of rotation. The fiyers are mounted with a cradle which in turn support a reel for the second of third wire being twisted by the machine.

The machines in general have been limited as to speed of operation by the characteristics of the fiyer bars which in various embodiments have been formed of forged steel and of wood. The stresses set up in rotation have been such as to produce crystallization within the steel thereby inducing failure at the joints and, where wooden bows have been used speeds have been limited by the strength of thepieces. In general the inherent limitations of the structure of the bows have limited .the speed of production of the machine. A seriousfactor in this limitation has been the fact that the bows generally approach the longitudinal axis of rotation at angles less than about 45.

It is accordingly a fundamental object of the instant invention to provide a wire twisting machine characterized by having a flexible bow which in its elements is semicircular so that the two parts thereof will form essentially a circular piece for guiding the wire strands, thereby to reduce strain in the bow itself in the twisting operations.

It is a second object of the invention to provide an improved bow structure for a twisting machine which will permit a reduction in the size of cradle required and improve the speed of operation.

It is a further object of the invention to provide' a twisting machine in which only the light bow is swung about the longitudinal axis of rotation.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obviousand in part appear hereinatter.

The invention accordingly is embodied in a twisting machine wherein strands to be twisted are fed along the longitudinal axis of the machine, at least some of the strands being passed over essentially a semi-circular bow to be twisted with otherstrands, the bow being characterized by being formed from steel bands as a re-enforcing core, and the bend giving the bow its semicircular form, the invention being characterized by the further features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangements of parts embodied in the machine and the means for mounting the bow in the machine by which the structure driven is reduced essentially to the iight bow.

In the drawings a detailed showing oi the structure has been made and therein Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the twisting section of the machine,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the machine shown in Fig. l,

Fig. 3 is adetailed view partially in section of the structure at a trunnion constituting the outlet from the machine,-

Fig. 4 is'a sectiontaken substantially along the line 4--4 of Fig. 3,

' Fig. 5 is a section taken along the line 5+5, Fig. 3 showing details of the bow, and- Fig. 6 is a view taken along the line 6-6 showing details of the mounting of the bow at the trunnion itself.

Referring to Fig. 1, It) represents the base on which the machine is mounted and l I and 2 a section of supporting framework. A pair of suports l3 and I4 carry bearings i5 and It in which hollow trunnions l1 and i8-run. The power drive for the machine, which forms no part of the instant invention, is represented schematically as being mounted at support i9 and driving the machine through connection 2! It may be noted at this point that the structure of the machine is such that it can advantageously be driven from one side, for the bow is of such structure that there is no appreciable lag between the two ends when so driven.

The structure which connects the two trunnions is composed of the cradle 2| suspended at the two points 22 and 23- on the respective hollow trunnions l1 and i8. On each of the trunnions there isalso carried a clamp 24 and 25 for holding the bow 26 inplace. The details of construction of the clamps and the bow will be traced in connection with the detailed Figs. 5 and 6.

The cradle also carries the lateral supports 21 which extend transversely of the longitudinal axis of the machine to receive the axis of a spool of Wire 28 which feeds wire out of the machine.

The spring friction structure 29 shown generally in Fig. 1 provides a friction strap at the side of the cradle to control the rate of feed of the wire to the speed demanded by the delivery or takeup capstan.

The instant machine has a wire feed 30 entering the machine passing through pulley 3| mounted on trunnion I8, the wire then passing over the bow 26, through pulley 32, and out through hollow trunnion [1, wherein it is twisted with Wire fed from the reel 28 mounted in the cradle. As noted, the reel 28 is carried by the cradle and the strand 33 fed therefrom passes around guide pulleys 34 and 35 to be fed out through the hollow trunnion l! where it' is twisted with the feed wire 30.

The bow is symmetrical to provide uniformly directed strain on the bearings. The lower semicircular section is used when a three wire twisting operation is carried out.

The several parts of the machine shown in Fig. 1 are correspondingly numbered in Fig. 2 which is a plan view of the same portion of the machine.

In Fig. 3 details of the connection of the how 26 with its clamp 24 are shown.

As noted, bearing carries the hollow trunnion l! which in turn at its inner end carries the bearing 4|] on which the cradle 2| is mounted.

The bow 26 is formed preferably of bands held together by clips with the cross-sectional configuration shown in Fig. 5 and is then mounted to form a circle or semi-circle and the ends thereof clamped at 24 by the bolt 4| and crosspiece 42, wherein crosspiece 42 seizes the bow itself and holds it against clamp 24. The tip end 26' of the strip 26 is bent at about a right angle to the body thereof to fit snugly about the clamp 24. The other end of the strip 26 is bent in the opposite direction to fit closely against crosspiece 43. Whether the bow is circular and made of a single piece or made of a pair of semi-circular parts, it is brought under crosspieces 42 and 43 with the ends bent as illustrated and held filmly in place by the bolts against the clamp 24.

In this connection it may be noted that the bow may be formed of two units held in semi-circular form, an end of each being held by crosspieces corresponding to 43 and 44, or it may be formed of a single piece bent to a circular form, the ends thereof being held as shown at Fig. 3. With this construction it will be apparent that the clamp 24 being integrally joined with the hollow trunnion I! will cause the bow to rotate at the same rate of speed as that atwhich the trunnion is driven and the free running bearing 46 will permit the cradle to rest stationary so that a relatively light motor may be employed to drive the structure.

In Fig. 3 feed wire 30 passes under the pulley 32 and out through the hollow trunnion and it will be noted that the structure of the trunnion at this point calls for a cut-out section 56 which per-' mits the mount 5| for the pulley to be placed so that the path of the wire 30 is substantially at the axis of rotation of the device so that it may meet and be twisted with the wire 33. Details of the connection of the pulley mount with the hollow trunnion H are shown in Fig. 4.

Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate the construction of the bow itself and therein it will appear that the bow 26 is formed with metal clips 60 bent to the configuration which will define a pair of openings, essentially like a figure 8, at either side and bring the outer edges of the clips in toward the center to permit clamping of these parts together by nuts and bolts 6| and 62, which in turn also employs the crosspiece 63 carrying the loop 64 which is the guide for the wire. The bow itself is formed by reenforcing bands or ribbons 65 and 66 carried within the openings of the clip. The preferred material for the bands is spring steel.

Developed in plan form the bow is shown in Fig. 6 where corresponding parts are correspondingly numbered and the structure is shown being joined to the mount for the bow at the clamp on the trunnion. Thus it will be seen that the bow may be formed of a pair of strips of steel held to form a circular piece of a desired diameter, the ends thereof being brought together in the clamp structure mounted on the hollow trunnion as shown in Fig. 6, or two semi-circular pieces may beemployed and joined at either end of the diameter. The structure is such that the hollow trunnion is free running in its bearings and carries, as the only load to be swung about the horizontal longitudinal axis of rotation of the machine, the light bow shown.

Thus, in operation, which is best traced by reference to Fig. 1, a wire 30 is fed into the machine through the hollow trunnion i8, under the pulley 3|, through a series of loops 64, over half of the bow, under the pulley 32, and out at the axis of rotation of the trunnion I'l. Actually the level at which the wire is fed out would be'one wire radius away from the axis of rotation of the machine. Similarly the wire carried by the spool 28 is fed around the pulleys 34 and 35 and out at a level one radius away from the center of the axis of rotation of the trunnion so that the two strands meet and are accurately twisted at axis of rotation. In operation, therefore, the only part of the machine which must be swung about the axis of rotation in order to produce the needed twisting is the bow itself, thereby permitting wire twisting operations with the employment of relatively light parts and small power drive.

A further advantage in the instant structure is that the bow is brought to the axis of rotation at substantially a angle, so that the centrifugal force developed in swinging the how about its axis appears essentially as tension only at the points where the bow is clamped at the axis of rotation. Generally in conventional structures the bows have not been semi-circular in form and have been brought in to the axis of rotation at acute angles.

The details of the locking mechanism for the reel arbor identified generally as it in Figure 1 are set forth in detail in my copending application, Serial No, 260,731, now Patent No. 2,662,702. Briefly, the structure may be seen in section in Figure 2 where l I identifies the reel arbor mounted within the rotating sleeve 12, having needle bearings 13 and 14 at either end thereof. A T piece 15 is pinned at 16 to one end of the arbor and has flats milled into the sides thereof to make it correspond in width to the key opening 11 shown in Figure 1. Corresponding flats and key opening are employed in the other end of the arbor. The T piece 15 carries an opening 18 into which the spring mounted pin L9 is fitted to hold it in place. Briefly, the structure is such that the flats in the arbor permit it to slide through the restricted portion of the key opening Ti and when in place the arbor is rotated 90 and pinned in place so that it is effec tively locked in the cradle.

Having described the invention in only a single embodiment it is to be understood that variations thereof may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A bow for a twisting machine comprising metal bands held in fixed spaced parallel relation, clips holding said bands in said relation, said clips being formed to essentially a figure 8 configuration, the hollows of said configuration carrying said bands, said clips being clamped together by cross braces carrying strand guiding loops to clamp said elements together.

2. A bow for a twisting machine comprising metal bands held in fixed spaced parallel relation, clips holding said bands in said relation, said clips being formed to essentially a figure 8 configuration, the hollows of said configuration carrying said bands, and cross pieces carrying strand-guiding loops clamping said elements together.

3. A bow in accordance with claim 2, wherein I the bands have their ends bent oppositely at substantially right angles to the plane of the bands.

4. In a wire twisting machine the combination comprising a support, a pair of spaced tubular trunnions rotatably mounted on said support on a common axis, a wire spool supporting cradle suspended from the opposed ends of saidtrunnions on free running bearings, and a light weight circular bow secured to the opposed ends of said trunnions so as to be rotatable about said cradle and consisting of a pair of axially aligned metal hands, a plurality of clamping members for holding said bands in parallel spaced relation, and wire guides mounted on said bands.

5. In the combination of claim 4, said bands forming said bow each consisting of a pair of semicircular members secured at their ends on said trunnions in pairs to form said bow.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Re. 11,539 Barrett May 19, 1896 26,894 Pitman Jan. 24, 1860 443,491 Ball Dec. 30, 1890 2,457,402 Roetting Dec. 28, 1948 

